DALLAS, Texas - UAB linebacker Patrick Bastien prides himself
on form-tackling in the proper way, wrapping up and not leading his body
into a potentially defenseless offensive player.

But he said that
plays happen in a split second. With all the offseason talk about
college football's new targeting rule, where a defender could be ejected
if an official rules a hit too high against an offensive player.

This
would likely apply more to safeties, as most hits like this happen over
the middle to a receiver by a safety, but big hits happen all over the
field.

"I really haven't been in those situations," Bastien said
at Conference USA's Media Day. "I'm real big on form tacking. I'm real
big on wrapping up. During a situation where a receiver's going over the
middle and you have to make a play, it's hard to react during the last
second."

"That's
crazy," he said. "That's crazy. That's going to be so hard to judge.
Once it gets to a point where games are being decided by those type of
those judgment calls, it's going to be hard."

UAB head coach Garrick McGee said that the rule would be a "wait and see" rule.

"It's
going to be an interesting rule throughout the season to see how that
impacts the game," McGee said. "Things happen in a brilliant flash in
football. To make a decision based on that, if a kid's going to be
eliminated from game or not, when it's a snapshot type collision that
that could really affect some games, we'll have to see how it goes
throughout the year and hopefully go back and evaluate it."

"I
haven't thought much about it," McGee said. "I know most teams in our
conference are spread, fast-breaking offenses. I've really just spent my
time figuring out how to defend, studying different ball clubs figuring out
how to defend spread offenses. I haven't spent much time figuring how it
should not be a part of football."

UAB's offense is more
traditional, relying on a strong offensive line and run game. Certainly,
they'll make plays through the air as well.

"We have a philosophy
that works for us," McGee said. "We're going to stick to what we've
always done on offense. It tends to work for us consistently. What
people need to do on offense is buy in to something, believe in it and
make it work. We're just going to stick to our guns offensively."